Get on the Gratitude Frequency: It’s the Most Important Thing You Can Do
I want to close out this blog series on a powerful note. And, that brings me to the subject of gratitude. To be grateful is the single most important and transformational thing you can be, do or have.
(In the Bible Hangout, we’re working with Pam Grout’s Thank and Grow Rich.)
Everything and Everyone Operates at a Specific Frequency
I remember a job I had just out of college. My boss was a moody person. I didn’t know what kind of energy I would get from her each day. Some days she’d arrive super happy. And, then other days she’d come in and jump down my throat.
I never knew what to expect. The way she came in to the office seemed to control the kind of experience I had throughout the day. It made our office environment difficult and unpleasant.
Our Frequency Determines Our Experience
What I couldn’t see then was the part I played in our collective experience. In my mind, her moodiness was the sole contributor to the bad energy in the office. I didn’t come to work angry or grumpy.
Here’s the thing: “Your vibration creates your subjective experience of life’s ever-changing phenomena, schedules your lineup of coming attractions” (Thank and Grow Rich).
Everything and everyone may operate at a specific frequency. But it is our personal frequency (or vibration) that determines our experience.
Deep!
We Can Change Our Frequency
We may think of our personalities — the things we like, dislike, etc — as fixed or, at least, hard to change. It may feel as though we operate at a frequency that is semi-permanent. In truth, we control our frequency. We have learned ways of responding to the world.
But there’s good news: We can learn a new response. “You can use [your vibration] to spot, analyze, and decipher problems. Or you can use it to livestream the mind of God” (Thank and Grow Rich).
That which disturbs us does not have to continue to disturb us. The things that make us angry do not have to continue making us angry. We have power over what elicits an emotional response from us. As we expand in spiritual maturity, we discard the learned patterns of response that do not profit us.
Gratitude Shifts Our Frequency
When we dare to get grateful, we literally discard learned patterns of response at warp speed. If persisted in, gratitude will change what we notice. And, when we change what we notice, our frequency shifts, our vibration rises.
In Thank and Grow Rich, Grout says, “There’s no mistaking it when you’re tuned in. Life just works better. I notice that when I’m on the joy and gratitude frequency, I’m a better writer, a better mother, a better pickleball player. Food tastes better, songs sound sweeter, and complete strangers send me love notes. If you want to be a crazy strong electromagnet for love, be playful. Be astonished. Be grateful. Only then can the universe and its divine explosion of possibilities get serious with you.”
An attitude of gratitude maintained over time will shift your inner state in powerful ways that may seem miraculous.
The Problem with a Low or Negative Frequency
“The problem has never been reluctance on the part of the universe” (Thank and Grow Rich).
Whenever Spirit flows unimpeded, It flows in lavish abundance. Even in a “bad” neighborhood, the trees are chock full of leaves. Even on a block with small yards, you’d be hard pressed to give an accurate account of the number of blades of grass in a single yard.
Because Spirit is the same everywhere, the only hiccup in the lavish flow of Spirit is “our inability to see the beautiful, loving Truth it continually offers.” We don’t have a supply problem, we have a low frequency problem.
Scripture says it this way: “The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41).
The problem with a low or negative frequency is that it changes what we see and perceive.
A Low Frequency Impacts What We Can Accomplish
At UP Church, we are in the midst of a blanket drive. As I thought about the effort it would take to hit our goal of 250 blankets delivered, I found that a few personal problems also had my attention. Then it dawned on me that my ability to “let go” of my personal problems would enable me to think more clearly about the challenge of delivering 250 blankets.
Quite literally, my ability to be a blessing depends on my ability to take my attention off my problems.
Whew!
That straightened up my attitude.
“Even though we believe our vision is like a camera, simply recording in real time all the shapes, objects, and motions we see, the truth is the brain’s 130 million photoreceptors are joined by billions of neurons and synapses that construct and reconstruct literally anything our consciousness asks for” (Thank and Grow Rich).
Short version: my brain will pay attention to whatever I tell it to pay attention to.
Grout identifies 4 beliefs that tell our brains to pay attention to the wrong things:
The Belief that Something is Wrong About Us
We have entire industries built around explaining what is wrong with us or helping us fix what is wrong with us. “From the get-go, we’re taught that we are separate entities and, at our core, selfish and only out for ourselves. To deal with this “problem,” we are taught to rein in our impulses, to get ourselves under control. Our main “job” is to seek our problems, compose plans to eliminate them, and use willpower to stay in line” (Thank and Grow Rich).
The Belief that the Voice in Our Heads is Us
The voice in our head is so powerful. Most people believe everything the voice tells them. The problem is the voice specializes in explaining what is wrong with us.
Grout writes: “For the longest time, I thought this voice was me. It did a very convincing impersonation. I took the voice to therapy. I explained its opinions about my worth to my friends. I believed that when I voiced its concerns, I was voicing my concerns. It wasn’t until I began counting my blessings that the other frequency was able to make contact, the still, small one that whispered kind truths” (Thank and Grow Rich).
The Belief that Life is Fair for Others but Not Us
I contend that the root of all evil is the belief that someone can have a lucky break. We tend to believe that life moves in linear fashion — it does not. It moves according to consciousness.
The lucky break someone seems to get is simply a break in consciousness. And, the moment you move into a perpetual state of gratitude, you, too, can experience what seems like a lucky break.
Life pays an exact wage.
Gratitude raises your salary.
The Belief that How You See It Is the Way It Is
“The minute you judge something, you miss everything from that point on” (Thank and Grow Rich). Whatever you call a thing, so it becomes for you.
Anais Nin says: “We do not see the world as it is; we see the world as we are.” When you find yourself wanting a different experience, stop. Right where you are, all the good of God is. And, if you cannot find it where you are, you will never find it where you are going.
The moment does not produce the joy; you do.
I once worked a party at a home in Rolling Hills Estates. If you know this area, you know it’s the very definition of luxury. As I moved through the party making sure that everything moved according to schedule, I found myself feeling envious of this lavish experience.
Then I stopped myself and said these words: “Sherri, the grass is not greener here. The grass is green where you water it.” When you express gratitude for the place you now stand, you essentially water your own grass.
Get into the Gratitude Frequency Right Now
Grout wrote something that resonated with me so deeply, it felt like I said it: “There is nothing more important you could ever do for yourself, your family, your friends, your planet, and yes, even for the starving children than to tune in to the frequency of gratitude and joy.”
Our ability to draw to us more and more resources for our use and for the purpose of sharing is directly tied to our gratefulness.
Our lives reflect our present level of gratitude. Nothing more can come into my experience until I exceed my present level of gratitude.
Our Gratitude Benefits Others
Everything we do impacts ourselves and others. “All of us wildly underestimate the impact we have on each other. We discount the tremendous effect even the smallest act has on all of humanity” (Thank and Grow Rich).
Because we do not see the impact on others, we think what we do has no impact on others. Not so. Remember, we see according to the frequency we operate at. At higher frequencies, we get better at perceiving how our actions touch the lives of others.
My willingness to develop a consciousness of gratitude doesn’t just improve my life, it improves the lives of everyone else on the planet. I become a better asset to my community. I touch the lives of the people that I am meant to touch and they in turn touch the lives of the people they are meant to touch. And, so it continues.
My gratitude carries unlimited planetary impact.
My Call to Action
Now, I invite you to join the 21-day gratitude challenge we’re practicing at UP Church. It’s super simple:
- Wake up each day and affirm: “Something insanely amazing will happen to me today.”
- Believe that miracles and blessings will happen for you.
- Share 3 unique things you are grateful for each day on UP’s Gratitude Wall: http://upchurch.org/gratitude
That’s it!
